In an effort to meet the goals of BWH’s Strategic Plan and to meet the growing needs of our patients, families and employees, the hospital is busily planning a Growth Plan that will be implemented from now until 2007.

“The good news is we are growing as an institution. However, this poses a complex series of maneuvers related to many departments and specialties currently residing at the main campus of the hospital,”
said Chief Operating Officer Matt Van Vranken.

“Trying to expand programs in a campus that is already under tremendous space constraints, is a large task. In order to make needed changes a reality, moving various departments to other parts of the main campus, to buildings in close proximity to the main campus or to off-site locations farther from the main campus have to take place in a specific chronological fashion,” said Vice President of Support Services Arthur Mombourquette, who along with Van Vranken, has been directing subcommittees to continually develop creative solutions to meeting BWH’s space needs.

According to Van Vranken, many departments have already settled into off-site buildings over the last five years and the footprint of BWH will continue to grow in the months and years to come.

To start the plan in progress, key moves and expansions will take place by next fall. Specifically, two new operating rooms will be opened on L1 by October 1; inpatient gynecology and gynecologic oncology will be moved from Tower 15 to the seventh floor of the Connors Center in October; and one ten-bed pod will be opened by October 15.

According to Mombourquette, these are the initial moves in what will prove to be a domino effect of moves by the conclusion of 2007. In addition to the two new ORs to be added to L1 in the fall of 2002, two additional ORs will be re-commissioned and additional OR support space will be added to accommodate growing storage, administrative and locker room needs. Additional imaging space is also being planned. On L2, both the Radiation Oncology and angiography services will be expanded, while a new MRT suite will be added to the floor plan.

“In addition to these important clinical expansions, the space planning process also recognizes the need for additional space in the existing inpatient areas to support the needs of staff, patients and patients’ families,” said Mombourquette, who explains that the changes brought about by the Growth Plan will affect a broad group of employees—from administrative staff to physicians.

When compared to comparable academic medical centers, BWH falls short of alotted space, given its high patient volume. According to the hospital’s space planning consultants, BWH’s 1.7 million square feet of space to serve 334,969 patients ranks significantly less than the benchmark minimum for academic teaching hospitals in urban settings.

According to Mombourquette, in order to make modest expansions in key areas, a total of nearly 150,000 square feet of space is needed. On L1 alone, nearly 20,000 square feet of administrative and support space needs to be redesignated to make way for necessary service line expansion.

“The challenge of executing a Growth Plan at a facility like BWH with limited space to begin with, is that with every move or expansion comes two other moves,” said Mombourquette, who explains that many of the moves of offices and clinical space to off-campus locations are temporary until the Neville House is renovated and the Ledge Site and Center for Advanced Medicine projects are completed.

One temporary solution to all the movement is Binney-Vining Village, a group of trailors located across from 75 Francis Street, which will soon serve as the short-term home to several different departments. Binney-Vining village will create 5,000 square feet of additional space for BWH in the upcoming months.

“As we move forward with these decisions, we are committed to communicating with our staff and employees at every opportunity,” said Van Vranken. “While specific approaches may shift over time due to environmental changes, we are focused on providing BWH with the space and resources necessary to meet its mission.”